Scythe the Grimm
by Thaddius
Summary: Set post Great War in 2995 and opening volley of Eden prime war in 2183. The crew of the Scythe will have to face the trials of war in a reality that is not their own.
1. Chapter 1

**January 12****th**** 2559, Reyes-Melees Shipyards, Cradle 112, Observation deck.**

"Captain, here is your new ship, the light frigate of my own design and the first of her class, the Scythe." Savannah Reyes says with pride to Capt. Joann Patton. "and before you ask why she has no M.A.C. Gun, I will tell you, it was replaced with a Grendel-Nonlinear-Hyper Plasma Stream Array, fully able to do what a plasma projector can with half the power cost and the stream is fully malleable." Ms. Reyes beams with pride at her ship.

"Well Ms Reyes I am worried that you didn't put in the new M.A.C. Gun, but if this Array of yours is as tough as you say it is I want to know what other goodies you packed into my boat." Captain Patton says with concern in her voice. "I do like the sharp angular design you have going on it."

"thank you Captain" thanks Ms. Reyes. " well the scythe is outfitted with a mark 4 Shield Generator on top of the 10 mk2 Archer missile pods, each pod carrying the standard 30 missiles each, a good thing too because these things are twice as strong and twice as agile to their older counterparts." Ms. Reyes says. " now the point defense weapons are all Galleon Directed Energy Point Defense Groups Capable of taking on 600 missiles successfully, and knocking out Plasma torpedoes." She smiles at Captain Patton, admiring the slightly shocked look on her face.

"Shields! and how is it powered?" Capt. Patton asks, shock evident in her voice.

"well its powered by a mk22 fusion reactor with two mk22 backup reactors that can be linked in for added power when needed, also her propulsion is 6 triangular hyper-focused ion thrusters and multiple micro ion engines all along her length for steerage, also the engines space-ward thrust vectoring flaps can force the engines into reverse by reflecting the ions forward and outward, completely negating the need for chemical thrusters on this ship." Ms. Reyes proudly exclaims.

"well what are we waiting for! Lets get her loaded up and ready for whatever HIGHCOM wants me to do with her!" Captain Patton exclaims with glee at the prospect of a ship that can be maneuvered in any way she saw fit.

"By all means lets begin." Ms Reyes says as she and the Captain leave the Observation Deck of Cradle 112.


	2. Chapter 2

**January 14****th**** 2559, Reyes-Melees Shipyards , UNSC Scythe, 10 minutes out of dry dock**

"Ma'am ONI Prowler just uncloaked off our starboard bow! They are requesting permission to dock!" Aries reports, appearing in a flare of fire from the main holo-table in front of Captain Patton."Well lets get em over here, I know those bastards wont let me go anywhere without whatever it is they are selling." Patton says, disgust evident in her voice as the spook vessel nears the starboard docking port. "Have a squad of Marines meet me at the airlock Aries." She orders as she heads for the docking port.

_I really hate these guys, they ask too many questions and answer none, what kind of group of semi intelligent monkeys do they think they are? Gorillas? No that's not fair to the Brutes._

Upon arriving at the starboard airlock a few moments after leaving the bridge she notices that not only marines are at the airlock, but a full squad of Helljumpers. "Aries thanks for adding the Helljumpers, nice touch" Captain Patton says with pride to her AI friend. "The Prowler has docked" Aries notes as a slight shudder passes through the ship upon docking with the smaller stealth vessel. " Cycling airlock now Ma'am" Aries reports as the inner airlock opens to reveal one ONI Lieutenant and Four Spartans in MK7 Mjölnir Powered Assault Armor, causing Patton to raise an eyebrow in shock.

_WHAT Spartans! what the hell is going on today!_

"Mind telling me what the hell is going on Lieutenant?" Captain Patton demands, surprise and disdain equally readable in her voice. "Well Captain it's your lucky day, meet Spartan White Team H005, H066, H051 and H254." The ONI Lieutenant introduces them. "Permission to come aboard. Sir!" H005 requests, his golden visor staring down at the Captain. "Welcome aboard White Team" Captain Patton smiles at the Spartan "Sargent take these Spartans to Cryo Four and assign them their tubes" She directs the Marine Sargent closest to the armored super soldiers. "Yes Ma'am" he affirms "right this way sirs." The Sargent says to the four behemoths before them before he smartly turns with flawless parade ground precision and marches away with the Spartans in tow, as the Spartans walk towards Cryo four a pair of Engineers are revealed in the airlock, much to Patton's surprise. "Are those what I think they are?" Captain Patton asks with shock written plain as day all over her face.

"Yes they are Captain, a pair of liberated Hurgrok the one on the left is Needs More Density, and the one on the right is Floats Buoyantly." The ONI Lieutenant calmly reports "They have been assigned to your vessel for the duration of the shakedown, we will also be testing the new Spartans and their armor, permission to come aboard? I am Lieutenant Grey." He says with a slight smirk on his face. Captain Patton scowls at the lieutenant, her disdain fully focused on the short man before her "permission granted" she says glaring death at the pitiful specimen of humanity before her. "Umm Ma'am I.." "Don't pretend to be scared of me worm, just do your job and stay out of my way when at all possible, you can ask my XO about a bunk. Now get going, he is on the Bridge and I do not want to see you there when I arrive!" Captain Patton interrupts Lieutenant Grey in a rather venomous tone. The ONI Spook takes off for the Bridge, double timing it the entire way in hopes of avoiding more of Patton's wrath. Joann Patton then turns her attention to the frightened Engineers in the airlock "well hello there, sorry you had to see that, I really, Really hate ONI Spooks" she says gently to the two Hurgrok, a small smile on her face. "now come on ill introduce you to the Chief Engineer" she says in an effort to coax them out of the airlock.

Floats Buoyantly coos at its partner Needs More Density, before tentatively floating up to the angry/calm human Captain they just met, carefully looking her over with its large eyes. Floats makes a musical sound after a moment then hears the human speak again "Come on you two, don't you want to take a look at the newest ship in the UNSC Armada?" Captain Patton says, the sound coming from her food hole, Floats never really understood why the food hole was used for speaking, it seemed so inefficient. Nevertheless Floats makes a happy singsong tone that is almost mirrored by Needs perfectly. Floats follows the human Captain further into the vessel taking in everything with its eyes and examining everything it can as they move along the ship, it seems like mere moments before it and Needs encounter another human this one male, he smells of broken parts and freshly fixed ones as well.

"Well hello there!" he says from his food hole, his food hole framing upturned in what humans call a smile. Floats coos at Needs in a cautious manner and they both take several minutes looking the human over before Needs purrs satisfactorily, Floats hums in confirmation, this human is satisfactory as a fixer. "Well I'll leave you three to figure out how to work together" Captain Patton says to the human and them. The human Captain then turns and leaves the room, going back the way she came.

**Bridge 10 minutes later**.

Captain Patton walks on to the bridge to see her XO standing there with a permanent scowl on his face "the spook settled in now?" She asks calmly, though her XO, a man named Donnell sees the Overwhelming hate in her eyes at the merest mention of the man.

"Yea he has his quarters, I gave him the ones farthest away from you, so you don't have to see him so often" he says calmly. "shall we jump to Reach Ma'am?" he asks, his eyes smiling at the prospect of getting to test the latest Shaw-Fujikawa

Slipstream drive.

"Yes Donnell punch it" Captain Patton says with a huge grin on her face, Reach in a day, how exiting to finally be moving faster than the Xenos.

"All Hands Prepare For Slipstream Incursion, I repeat Entering Slipstream In .1. Engage!" Donnell hollers into the intercom right as he and Aries activate a Slipstream Portal and the ship and her crew vanish into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

**ERROR: TIME UNKNOWN**

**ERROR: LOCATION UNKNOWN**

**SCANNING FOR SIGNALS**

**SCANNING SURROUNDING STARS**

**SIGNALS DETECTED**

**ERROR: TIME FOUND 2183... VERIFYING!**

**ERROR: TIME FOUND 2183... VERIFYING!**

**ERROR: TIME FOUND 2183... VERIFYING!**

**TIME VERIFYID**

**ERROR: STAR CHARTS DO NOT MATCH! **

**ERROR: STAR CHARTS DO NOT MATCH!**

**LOCATION FOUND**

**ANOMALY DETECED: DARK MATTER IN HIGHER THAN NORMAL CONCENTRATIONS!**

**SCANNING: COLD SPOT FOUND AT DARK MATTER CONCENTRATION POINT,OBSERVING**

**VESSEL FOUND,TYPE UNKOWN, AFFILATION UNKNOWN, DESIGNATION FOUND, SSV NORMANDY**

**VESSEL IN ORBIT OF WORLD**

**WORLD DESEGNATED EDEN PRIME,**

**SIGNALS IDENTIFIED AS CITIDAL CODEX, REVIEWING**

**WORLD AFFILATION: HUMAN SYSTEMS ALLIANCE**

**SHIP SSV NORMANDY: AFFILATION HUMAN SYSTEMS ALLIANCE**

**WARNING: PLANET EDEN PRIME UNDER ASSAULT BY UNKNOWN MECHANIZED UNITS.**

**PROTOCAL: INFORM CAPTAIN**

**IMPLIMENTING PROTOCAL**

"Ma'am! We are not at reach and I strongly recommend going to battle stations, unknown detected in orbit of the planet in front of us!" Aries practically roars over the speakers as the Scythe exits slipstream. "I also recommend not firing as the planet appears to be under assault by unknowns as well and that ship is apparently there to stop it!"

"All hands to battle stations!" Captain Patton taking the AI's advice and going with her gut at the same time. "Aries where the hell are we!" Patton demands of the AI.

"I do not know Joann, but we are not in our own universe anymore. That I can assure you." Aries reports with a frown on his digital face, as if very irrevocably confused about the entire situation. "What do you mean Aries, this must be really bad if you have dropped protocol on me!" Fear and confusion noticeable only to the AI in her voice.

"Well if you will look at the today's date you will find it to me February 1st 2183, also the star charts I have pulled from the comm signals bouncing all over the place put us in dark space on our own and yet on those charts there is a star system, with planets like the one before us. Furthermore I had to pull today's date from those very same comm signals." Aries says, with no small amount of dread. "and to make matters worse I found this." he says pulling up the Human Systems Alliance page on something called a CODEX.

Captain Patton takes a moment to skim through it. "no UNSC... no covenant... no self innovation by humanity after this... first contact war." Captain Patton looks at Donnell. "Get us away from our entry point and out of their sensor range if at all possible" She then looks at Aries "Aries switch us from hot to cold ions I don't want us leaving a heat trail as we move." She orders both man and intelligence in rapid succession "Yes Ma'am" they both reply before going about their tasks, working in concert in an attempt to give the Unknowns the slip.

"Ma'am I have identified the Unknown mechanized units, One AI controlled self maintaining Cybernetic Dreadnaught currently deployed over what appears to be a human settlement on the planet, and 600 individual semi-sentient program controlled bipedal platforms of the race, Quarian, in origin." Aries says, concern on his digital visage apparent to all on the bridge. "Ah the Engineering team is working on the slipstream drive so it is currently inoperable, they are trying to find what went wrong." The AI reports.

"Well how is this ship you have picked up dealing with the planetary problem?" Captain Patton asks Aries while reading through the CODEX as her XO handles getting her ship to a safe distance to watch.

"Well Captain they apparently have deployed a small ground team and have been tearing these mechanized units a new one... AH! the Dreadnaught is leaving! And small team on the ground is requesting emergency pickup! MASSIVE DARKMATTER CONCENTRATION IS INCREASING AT SYSTEMS EDGE, DIRECTED PULSE RELEASED, CONTACT WITH DREADNAUGHT LOST." Aries reports loudly. "Hmm it appears as though that object at the systems edge is some form of FTL catapult... Ah here it is" he says pulling up the CODEX "a 'Mass Relay' it apparently uses what they call Element Zero, what we call Dark Matter to propel a Space capable craft to a sister relay in another system. How primitive." The AI remarks, pride at slipstream travel for being far superior in the one respect, Freedom of exploration. "The Vessel in orbit has launched a shuttle to pick them up, what an interesting way of going about it, they entered atmosphere before launch." Aries reports to Captain Patton.

"how long until you think they will notice us Aries?" She asks the construct concern barely noticeable in her voice. "Well we have just exited their probable sensor range, but with all the signals bouncing around there really is no blind spot for that ship." Aries reports, looking over the map of the "Mass Relay" network he pulled from the CODEX.

"shut down all nonessential systems and lets drift for a bit and see what they do." Captain Patton Orders "and have weapons and shields on standby in case this "Human Systems Alliance" is not friendly" she adds with a frown.

_Now lets see what they do._


End file.
